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 News From Europe - July 2008  |
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Frozen Sweet Goods, American-Style
It’s euros to doughnuts that tastes are changing in the homeland of the Berliner; only some of those “American” products are actually coming from bakeries in France. Thaw-and-serve items are not only hot...they’re cool too. Yogurt’s a hit. And big cakes are back in a big way. Sales of frozen baked goods in Germany, which fill a restless public’s demand for variety and convenience, have increased 180% in the last ten years. The ongoing trend to American-style products (bagels, brownies, doughnuts, etc.) carried on, as did the trend to organic offerings, and to pre-baked products that make possible fresh rolls and pastries all day long. Notable also were rustic products and jelly doughnuts with seemingly endless fillings and decorations. Those American-style “thaw and serve” items fit in well with the Starbucks-style coffee house culture that is also prominent in Germany. Bakeline S.n.c of Schöneck, France (Fax: +33 3-87846861), is one of the leading specialists in these imports. Top products in 2007 were the Espresso Brownie Schnitte, with a particularly moist coffee-flavor and coffee-chocolate glaze, and the Carrot Cream Cheese Cake, with a decoration of orange-colored chocolate bits. A whole new range called BackHits, serving the trend towards lighter treats, has been developed at Erlenbacher Backwaren, Gross Gerau (Fax: +49 6152-803347). They are 28 centimeters across, but are mostly sponge cake with fruit glazes. Current favorite BackHits are the light and fruity Raspberry Yogurt Summer Dream slices (1,350g), followed by creamy and fruity classical Danube Wave, coated in chocolate (1,000 grams), and the double chocolate slice (1,000 grams). New this year is a blueberry cream cake with fresh yogurt cream on an American-style crumb base. For those who like to nibble, meanwhile, there are Chocolate Crossies, featuring a crunchy crisp chocolate base with a decoratively rippled mixture of dark and white mousse au chocolate, covered with a thin layer of fluffy sponge cake and a decorative layer of dark chocolate with stripes of white chocolate and chocolate flakes. Topping off all of this, each of the twelve conveniently pre-cut slices has a genuine Choco Crossie on top. The most successful 2007 product for Bakemark Deutschland of Bremen (Fax: +49-421-3502-355) combined the doughnut with a leading brand of milk chocolate, Milka. Its Milka Schoko-Doughnut is sold in individual purple packs for the impulse trade at convenience stores, amusement parks, food automats, railway stations and airports. It’s delivered frozen, but remains saleable in the pack for up to four days after thawing. The purple package reflects the purple cow that Kraft Foods, no doubt inspired by the Gelett Burgess poem, has used for decades as a trademark for Milka chocolate. Healthfulness, meaning reduced calories and sugarless products, is on the consumer’s mind these days and the frozen baked goods industry reflects this. Even cakes that look traditional can be made with healthfulness in mind. Dinghartinger Apfelstrudel of Landham (Fax: +49-89-903-0633) is proud of its first organic apple strudel. All of the ingredients are strictly controlled, from the Lake Constance apples to the flour and margarine to the spices. It’s available quick frozen, prebaked and fresh.
Even the traditional pretzel bakers are going organic. A year ago Ditsch of Mainz came out with an assortment of controlled-ingredient pretzels and pretzel sticks for foodservice, and was so successful that it is now offering them also at retail. Bake-off products continue to increase in importance. These rolls, pastries, and other baked items are proofed, partially baked and frozen at a central plant, and then sent off to supermarkets or cafes. The baking process is finished there, giving customers freshly baked products all day long. Rusticality is an interesting new trend. Délifrance Deutschland of Mühlheim (Fax: +49 208-9978915) has had a hit with its Bergbauernbrot in various forms and its Buffet-Brote de luxe. They’re made with a sour rye dough and barley malt, and appeal through their considerable porousness and crispy crusts. Thoks GmbH of Waltershausen (e-mail: info@thoks.com) also has entered the rusticality race with a Thuringian Onion Cake with bacon, a leek cream cake with ham, and a vegetarian leek cream cake. Coppenrath & Wiese of Osnabrück (Fax: +49 541-9162-355) remains the overwhelming market leader for traditional cakes for the coffee table. But it, too, has to take note of the fact that small and single households can’t normally make much use of a big cake. It is out with a Cafeteria range of mini-cakes and slices for the small household. The “Cafeteria Fein und Sahnig” range of sliced pastries, six to a package, has been particularly successful. Big “Fine and Creamy” hits have been Cafeteria Apfel-Sahne, with bits of apple, unleavened dough and cream; the pear and chocolate Birne-Schoko-Sahne, and the Donauwelle with a frosting mimicking waves on the Danube. Also successful for Coppenrath & Wiese has been its “Baileys-TK-Backswaren” assortment with Bailey’s Original Irish Cream liqueur. It comes in three forms: as a full-sized Sahne-Torte, as slices and as cream puffs. Lantmännen Unibake of Verden (Fax: +49 4231 6630) has had great success with its pre-baked Danish pastries, both full sized and miniature. The firm is the sole licensee in Germany for the products of Schulstad Royal Danish Pastries. It recently introduced a crisp and flaky assortment that includes Maple Pecan Plait, Double Choco Danish, Raspberry Crown, Vanilla Crown, Apple Crown and Cinnamon Swirl. In addition to the frozen pastries, Lantmännen also delivers sugar and nuts for decoration. Pfalzgraf of Pfalzgrafenweiler (Fax: +49 7445-85 1027) offers two other traditional cakes. Its Mousse au chocolat is an interpretation of a French dessert specialty featuring chocolate, egg yolks, butter, sugar, beaten egg whites and whipped cream. Its Spaghetti-Torte, so called because it’s optically similar to that pasta dish, is accentuated with vanilla and raspberry flavored whipped cream between two layers of cake. It’s topped with cream in the form of spaghetti, and a “parmesan” of white chocolate. Schöller Direct of Nürnberg (Fax: +49 911-938-1363) has a successful seasonal product that keeps going and going: “Cake of the Winter Amaretto Tangerine.” Despite all the trends, the traditional cake – Black Forest Cherry Cake, marzipan torte, etc. – is still very much in demand. The company also offers a gigantic line, the 40-centimeter “Oma’s Landkuchen.” The four variations of this traditional “Grandma’s Country Cake,” with many bits of fruit on batter pastry, are plum, apple, cherry and cheese-apricot. They’re particularly convenient; ready for the coffee table after three to four hours at room temperature. Schöller Direct is also into convenient-sized pastries. A new hit is a Mini-Törtchen Eierlikör; from egg liqueur, shortcake, whipped cream and grated chocolate. It’s ready for serving after four hours in the refrigerator. De Maekelboerger of Neubrandenburg (Fax: +49 395-4502-190) has given new meaning to the variations on the traditional jelly doughnut, offering not only a variety of fillings but creative new ways of decorating. To the traditional fruit marmalade fillings it has added special ones like rose hip marmalade and a large variety of creams; pistachio, raspberry, champagne, egg liqueur and plum. In addition to the traditional sugar toppings, the doughnuts get green, brown, yellow and red frostings and such decorations as strips of chocolate or cherries. Seasonality is something else that seems to pay off. In the summer of 2006, Erlenbacher used the World Cup soccer matches to promote its “Kicker Slices,” and was so successful that the Nestlé subsidiary came out with another summer specialty in 2007. It was “Sommertraum Pfirsich Jogurt,” a “peach yogurt summer dream” of peach slices and chocolate strips on a light colored sponge cake base. It comes sliced, eight to a package, to serve the wishes of small and individual households. |
